Olympian Caileigh Filmer sent an Instagram post Sunday, showing a picture of herself with arms raised, winning gold in the UVic eight at the 2017 Canadian university rowing championships on Burnaby Lake. Below that was a split-screen shot of her mother, Helen, also winning gold with Crawley’s 1989 UVic eight.
“Twenty-eight years later: Same blood, same colours, same coach,” wrote Caileigh Filmer, with the post.
“So proud to have been able to race in Rick Crawley’s last crew and live the legacy.”
Quite a legacy it has been as Crawley is in his final season of guiding the Vikes program.
“You can trust anything [Crawley] puts in front of you,” said Filmer, after practice Monday.
Filmer, who stroked Canada to fifth place in the eight at Rio 2016 at age 19 and who has a big career ahead of her, is only the latest international athlete to row for Crawley at UVic in a list that includes Olympic medallists Buffy Alexander, Kirsten Barnes, Anna Vander Kamp, Lindsay Jennerich, Theresa Luke, Darcy Marquardt and Rachelle de Jong.
Crawley had an accident just prior to the university championships and required surgery. As an indication of his dedication, Crawley managed to get over to Burnaby on Sunday to be at the final day of the nationals on crutches.
“My mom was there watching, too, and it was so special to have both her and Rick there for the finals,” said Filmer.
Filmer won two gold medals in the eight and single, the former by seven seconds and latter by 13 seconds, over the weekend at the university championships to lead UVic to second place in the overall standings behind Western Ontario.
“We laid it all out there. It was a big team effort,” said Filmer, an earth and ocean sciences major.
The members of the gold-medallist UVic eight were Filmer, Olivia King, Morgan Cathrea, Avalon Wasteneys, Maxine Chapman, Jessica Stewart, Larissa McKinlay, McKenna Simpson and coxswain Cassidy Fernandes.
UVic’s other women’s gold came in the pair with Cathrea and King pulling. There was also bronze in the lightweight four with Alanna Ward, Sarah Craven, Rachel Kalkman, Rebecca Kingston and coxswain Jessica Bateman.
“The cold weather was the worst of it and my fingers were going numb,” said Filmer. “But we layered properly, and all that training we did, really paid off.”
The UVic men, coached by Aalbert Van Schothorst, also placed second, behind UBC, in the men’s overall standings. Vikes male gold-medallists at the nationals were Patrick Keane in the lightweight single and Taylor Perry and Matthew Szymanowski in the pair. Vikes crews captured silvers in the eight and lightweight four while brothers Chris and Sebastian Gulka won bronze in the lightweight double.
